Joe Lycett ruthlessly mocks Rupert Murdoch over ‘two-week fiancée’: ‘What? What’s he gonna do?’

Media mogul abruptly broke off engagement with Ann Lesley Smith this week, reports claim

Joe Lycett took aim at Rupert Murdoch during his opening monologue on Late Night Lycett.

Reports broke earlier this week that the billionaire media mogul and Ann Lesley Smith had called off their engagement just two weeks after announcing their plans to marry.

Hosting his new Channel 4 live show on Friday (7 April), Lycett told the live studio audience: “Rupert Murdoch’s had a big week, he’s broken off his engagement.

“People say she was only after his money but I think that’s unfair, she may have just really been turned on by a flaccid, yellow, 92-year-old c***.”

After the audience reacted with shocked laughs at the explicit joke, Lycett responded: “What? What’s he gonna do to me?”

After a pause, he predicted: “F***ing everything”.

Murdoch, who has been married four times previously, announced his engagement to the former dental hygienist, 66, last month.

Joe Lycett (left) and Rupert Murdoch (Getty Images)

“I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love – but I knew this would be my last. It better be. I’m happy,” the Fox Corporation chairman told gossip columnist Cindy Adams in an article published in the New York Post.

On 4 April, Vanity Fair and CNN reported that the couple had “abruptly” called off their engagement, with one source citing Murdoch’s alleged discomfort with Smith’s evangelical views.

In 2013, she told the Christian Broadcasting Network that, after a “bitter” divorce, she found meaning in her life through religion.

“I was so hurt, so alone, and so rejected ... And I prayed for God to help me and forgive me of my sins,” she said, adding: “The Lord gave me thirst and a hunger for Him, and I actually replaced the things of the world with the Scriptures. As I began to walk with God, the things of the world just seemed pointless to me.”

Representatives for Murdoch did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.

Late Night Lycett airs Fridays at 10pm on Channel 4.